The European Bio-Dev II consortium is developing custom biometric registration solutions for eight EU member states (Schengen area plus the UK) and examining how to integrate biometrics into their current national visa processing systems. The Belgian embassy in Kinshasa is the first operational installations as part of this experiment using Zetes. Future application include use in democratic elections and voter lists.

Kinshasa/Brussels — BioDev-II is an experiment of seven EU Member States from the Schengen area, plus the UK. It is being conducted under the supervision of the European Commission, with Civipol Conseil in France as financial agent. The primary objective of the experiment is to develop biometric registration solutions that are custom-tailored for each of the eight EU Member States, integrate them into the existing national visa processing systems and test their interoperability. The study is running in each of the countries for a period of 15 months.

After an especially strict selection procedure by the European BioDev-II consortium, Zetes was added in June 2007 to the very selective shortlist of renowned suppliers. Now, just 3 months later, Zetes has already installed the first operational installations in Kinshasa, Lubumbashi and Kigali.

Didier Verwaerde, project manager for BioDev-II: “With the assistance of this installation, we can determine with 100% certainty that the person who files a visa application for the EU in Kinshasa is also really the person who will soon be admitted into the EU. Zetes’ BioDev-II registration kit has evolved on the basis of components which Zetes successfully used in other projects and offers us 100% certainty.”

“The experience we have accumulated is producing results, and puts us in a position to respond very quickly to the demands of our principals; often under the pressure of a strict schedule. For example, just think of the preparations for democratic elections, where secure and verifiable voter lists have to be assembled, as is happening today in Cape Verde. The BioDev-II project is now also benefiting from the expertise we have developed in such projects.” says Alain Wirtz, CEO of Zetes.

About Zetes
ZETES INDUSTRIES is a leading pan-European company in the value-added solutions and services industry for Automatic Identification of Goods and People (Goods ID and People ID). Zetes uses both emerging and mature technologies (barcode, voice recognition, RFID, smartcards, biometrics), and develops Solution Architecture Frameworks to optimize the business performance of many customers in many market segments: manufacturing, transportation, logistics, retail, healthcare, finance, telecommunication, government and public services. The Zetes group has its headquarters in Brussels, with subsidiaries in Belgium, Germany, France, Ireland, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, the Nordic countries, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the UK . Zetes currently employs more than 600 employees (in FTEs) and generated consolidated revenues of €137.5 million in 2006. More info: http://www.zetes.com.